Three Rules to Spice My Life Up
- Live with No Regrets
- Dare To Try: Let’s Make Impossible Get Real
- Believe in 1… 2… 3…
The Past
I like to make comparison of the timeline of my life to the tracks of a railway. Year 2012 and 2013 had been a long train journey through a stretch of
dark tunnel. As a passenger on board, there were no beautiful scenery to admire at. It was a train ride that was not entirely interesting to describe.
However, there were of course a few train stations where people got on and off and along the way I met interesting friends from different walks of life.
I want to thank Darren, Jaden, Dhamiri and Wei Jun for making this experience different at Mandai Hill Camp.
Year 2014 marked the end of the long stretch of tunnel. There was a split road and I chose to embark on the rail road that has no train stations until perhaps a year later. I started studying in Nanyang Technological University (NTU), pursuing a major in Biological Sciences. I have heard stories that the Biological Sciences sector in Singapore is becoming increasingly difficult for fresh graduates to find jobs. So I decided to take up a part-time diploma in Information Technology, paving an alternative route just in case I cannot find a Biology-related job and have to change field. That means on top of my regular classes in NTU, I attended three night classes per week. It is stressful and definitely not an advisable path to take.
The upside is that I am satisfied in learning useful practical computing skills. I am now able to write simple computer codes in Java or C program and
right now, I'm using notepad++ to write this new blog entry in HTML code. It was something that I never thought I will pick up when I was in my
polytechnic days. The downside is that I have lesser time to spend with my family, lesser time to be engaged in social activities and more often that not
I feel that I'm leading the life of a machine, not a human. Nonetheless, this express train journey with no train stops is nearing the end. I will be completing my IT
diploma course soon by the end of this month. If you ask me whether I regret making this decision. I will say maybe. But I think that computing can
be considered as an interesting profession. How about a mix and match to get the best of Biology and Computing?
The Present
I feel that since it is nearing the end of this express train journey, I should spice my life up a little. I'm thinking of bringing back some good old effective tricks and the three rules previously mentioned at the start of this post. I reinvented the To-Do List into what I called the Tic Tac Toe List. The Tic Tac Toe List is one of my old tricks and has always been a part of me when I'm about to plan something to do. I'm also thinking of keeping a simple daily log to monitor the progress of individual tasks.
I am currently working as an intern in Dr Chandra's lab in Bioinformatics Instittute (BII). It is part of my exploration to see if a merger between Biology
and Computing suits me. BII is a lab coat free office if you understand what I mean by lab coat free office, it also means a lab that does not require the use of micro-pipette for experiments. There is
no lab work. It involves the visualization of computer simulations and modelling of biological and chemical structures. The program uses physics calculations to account for interaction forces.
In summary, it is like doing cooking in a virtual game. Computing helps Biologists propose chemical mechanism or find drug targets at the atomistic level
in which experiments are unable to detect or test. But I cannot convince myself to work in bioinformatics yet. It is not an easy field to be in.
The Future
I intend to use the Dare to Try spirit to explore new things, decrease the list of things from my 'Never Have I...' list. I have just signed up for a one day 3h cooking lesson at TOTT baking school. Since Dr Chandra is throwing a party at his house for three of his PHD students who are leaving the lab, Bianca, Zohra and Lukman. Our big boss, Dr Chandra, says that we should make and not buy something for the pot luck dinner. I intend to take this opportunity to challenge myself to learn to make Japanese green tea swiss roll and sesame cookies.Secondly, I also intend to do some welfare service by joining the school welfare clubs or even volunteer to teach simple computer programming at a children's home. I guess my next first small step forward will be to make a blood donation at Health Sciences Authority. Regina and Edwin seems to be going any time this month and I guess it will also be a perfect opportunity.
Lastly, I may try to make a small soccer betting of $10 at the Singapore Pools for the World Cup. I'm hoping that Argentina will win this world cup.
No comments:
Post a Comment